<table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td>
</td> </tr> <tr> <td>
Date: 27 May 2011
<hr width="650" size="3" color="#CCCCCC"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td>
50 passengers feared dead in bus plunge Azad Kashmir
Hameed Shaheen
ISLAMABAD: About fifty passengers are feared dead when on Friday a civil bus steeply plunged into the upper Neelum Valley, 80 kilometers from Muzaffarabad. The unfortunate accident took place at Changaan, a narrow passage in the middle of the richly panoramic 90-mile long Neelum Valley in Azad Jammu & Kashmir.
A civil bus number MDS-136 carrying over 50 passengers left Muzaffarabad early on Friday morning to reach the upper Neelum Valley. After crossing safely the district headquarters of the Valley, Athmuqqam, the ill-fated vehicle is reportedly plunged into a 1000-feet river gorge at Changaan, 80 kilometers from Muzaffarabad capital.
It is not immediately known whether the passengers were the local Valley people or among them were also the traveling tourists from outside of AJK. Reports said that the Pakistan army personnel posted in the Valley informed the civil administration about the occurrence of the grievous bus accident. It is not yet known what retrieval efforts have been mounted by the civil administration.
Changaan is a midway village station in the middle of the scythe-shaped green Neelum Valley growing extra lush in the summer season attracting land tourists from far and wide. The only immediate rescue source available to the victims is the jawans of the Pakistan Army who must have rushed to the spot as is usual on such tragic occasions.
In the 2010 flash floods socio-economic life in this entire Valley was turned upside down rendering material losses to the tune of Rs. 10 billion. Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani who had flown to the Valley’s famous Kail station had announced a special assistance of Rs. 50 million for the affectees as urgent relief.
</td></tr></tbody></table>